The importance of adequately treating patients suffering from pain has been increasingly recognized over the past decade.
For the treatment of chronic moderate to strong and even severe pain as it occurs in cancer patients, opioid analgesics have become increasingly popular over the last decades. Among the factors contributing to this development has been the introduction of controlled release preparations of opioids such as morphine, hydromorphone and oxycodone which can be taken by a patient at reduced frequency compared to the immediate release preparations of these agents which had been available before.
Controlled release preparations of the opioid oxycodone such as the product Oxygesic® tablets which comprises oxycodone hydrochloride as the active agent and Targin® tablets which comprises a combination of oxycodone hydrochloride and the opioid antagonist naloxone hydrochloride have been successful both from a commercial perspective and in terms of acceptance by patients and medical practitioners.
However, there remain situations where controlled release preparations of opioids may not necessarily be medications of first choice when treating patients suffering from pain.